Just watched this unaired pilot for a series called Young MacGyver from 2003. I don't know why CBS didn't develop this show instead of the piece of trash they decided to call MacGyver now. The reboot that is now airing is horrible, but it could have been good if they just used this concept instead. This unaired pilot is actually pretty decent and represents more of what the original show was. The only major changes to make from this old pilot is: 1) Don't make him the nephew of MacGyver. They should have just made him MacGyver's son instead since Mac was an only child, therefore couldn't have a nephew. He did have a son, though. 2) Don't name the show Young MacGyver. Just MacGyver is good enough.

Other than that, I really liked this pilot. It was so much more of the show that I wanted the reboot to be. I really loved how when he walks into the control room at the Phoenix Foundation, you see the portraits of Dana Elcar and Richard Dean Anderson.

Has anyone else watched this? What are your thoughts?

https://youtu.be/b-vTTRRIBuk

First of all, BIG fan of Jared Padalecki... thought he was a brilliant choice for Clay. Though, the nephew thing isn't completely out the window. Originally I though MacGyver didn't have family outside of his grandfather, but actually, he stated he had a cousin in the first season, so he DOES have extended family. Since the "intelligence" gene comes from his father's side (based of Good Knight MacGyver), then it's entirely possible a member of his extended family would have the same kind of thinking. So a distant relative thing could work... if properly thought out.

I thought it worked better than the reboot though, as you said, seems to go in line with the original... especially since they paid homage to RDA and Dana Elcar, which meant it was in the same universe.

However, I never cared for the whole Team MacGyver thing... so it didn't really interest me as much as the original did.

I totally forgot about him mentioning a cousin. Thanks for bringing that up! I agree with you also on the team aspect - I hate it. At least in this Young Mac pilot, for the majority of it, he's still on his own. It made it clear that Mac was the star of the show and the other members of the "team" were just there for support. The reboot currently airing just makes Mac a small part of a really annoying, violent, gun using team.

It also really bothers me that they even need the hacker character in the reboot. Does anyone remember that Mac was actually good with computers also? He even had the whole hacker character he would pretend to be when he went undercover in a couple episodes.

Anyway, I also really liked how the Mac, in the unaired pilot, even explains that he believes that all life is valuable and showed the same morals and ethics of the original Mac.

And I also agree with you that Jared was a great pick to play the new Mac! I think it would be awesome if the new movie was based off this, and Jared could still play him.